


Swings and Roundabouts

by KatyaMorrigan



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Acrobatics, Almost Kiss, F/M, Inej being the coolest, Kaz and Inej have a Greatest Showman moment, Tightrope Walking, Trapeze Artistry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 10:48:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27349900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatyaMorrigan/pseuds/KatyaMorrigan
Summary: A Suli carnival comes to Ketterdam, and Kaz is eager to let Inej spend some time around people doing what she loved as a child. But when she knocks on his door one morning and asks him to join her at the tent, he is not in the least bit prepared for a morning of Inej tempting gravity.
Relationships: Kaz Brekker/Inej Ghafa
Comments: 8
Kudos: 75





	Swings and Roundabouts

**Author's Note:**

> Second oneshot for my NaNoWriMo writing challenge this year - one oneshot a day, every day for the whole of November. I'm following the SOFTober 2020 prompts by @wafflesandkruge on Instagram to give me some fluffy starting points for the coming month of fics.
> 
> The prompt for today was "falling".  
> I hope you enjoy!

When the travelling Suli acrobats arrived in Ketterdam one summer, Kaz could hardly believe their luck. After so many years seeing so few of her people in the dreary, white Kerch streets, Inej was finally going to meet others she could relate to once more. He never worried particularly about her loneliness in Ketterdam – after all, she was so well-loved among the Dregs and their smaller group of Crows that it hardly seemed to cross her mind – but Kaz knew that it would be important to Inej that she could find some familiarity in the cultural melting pot that was the city. Acrobatics and tightrope-walking had been her childhood, and although he would never say so, Kaz was concerned by the number of things Inej had had to give up in order to maintain her safety. This would give her a chance to be back in that place of freedom, of infinite possibility.

News of the carnival spread quickly, and soon there were red and gold posters in every grimy alehouse window. It was rare for something as childlike and magical as a group of travelling performers to come to Ketterdam, the place where dreams ended up in the gutter along with money and dignity, and the citizens wanted to savour the opportunity. Kaz wanted to as well.

“I assume you’ll want to visit the carnival when it opens,” he asked noncommittally one evening, as he and Inej closed up the Slat for the night. She was staying in her third-floor room, on call for reconnaissance work as and when it was required, and wasn’t likely to have any free time for leisure in the coming weeks.

“Absolutely.” Her face lit up at the thought. Kaz couldn’t look away.

“You’re needed for the stake-out on the Geldstraat when we have the opportunity,” he reminded her, “but I don’t want to stop you from going. I’ll get Roeder to cover a few days next week.”

Inej looked at him in bemusement, and he fumbled with the latch of the window. It was a difficult one to close – and her face was uncharacteristically unreadable.

“You don’t need to do that, you know,” she said. “I’m your spider. I can manage the work.”

“I don’t want to hold you back.”

“And I’m not being held back. I can be on call day and night regardless. There’s bound to be a break soon enough that I can do the stake-out without it overlapping with the carnival’s open days. You’re worrying too much.”

Kaz sniffed and adjusted his right glove.

“If you’re sure, then I won’t need to remind you how important this business is.”

Inej gave a meaningful smile. “You never do.”

She disappeared upstairs, and a few seconds later Kaz heard the familiar click of her door shutting. Why was she confused by his asking? It was only fair for him to make sure that business would be done whether or not she wanted to go out and see one of the shows. Granted, he would be willing to rearrange a good number of the plans already laid out if it would mean Inej got some time with people that made her feel at home, but that was irrelevant. He was fair enough for asking.

Then why had she given him that look? It was as though she had expected him to make an offer, but not the one that had left his mouth. Perhaps she had wanted more time away from the Slat. Perhaps she did want to leave Ketterdam.

Oh. Or perhaps she had wanted to go with him. Maybe she had thought he was suggesting that they go together.

Kaz snorted to himself as he checked the locks on all the doors. How unlike him it would be to offer his presence around the city without good reason. Kaz’s reputation banked on him being seen rarely, and on those few occasions he could be seen out in the open, that it was for a bad cause.

Unless she just wanted his company.

Well, that was even more absurd. He wouldn’t want to detract from her one opportunity to be amongst fellow Suli travellers, to be with people that were more her than anyone else in Ketterdam. Kaz couldn’t intrude on that. No matter how much he would like to see her face as she sat down in the tent and looked up at the acrobats.

Purely absurd.

***

A few day’s later and Inej hadn’t requested any time away from her post on Geldstraat or in the Slat waiting for more news. Kaz had seen her around the place, polishing her knives or checking through the documents he had amassed with this plan in mind, but otherwise she was simply on the job. Nothing unusual.

That was until the following week, when he was awoken by a tap at his door in the early hours of the morning.

Kaz never received visitors before midday, and he was certainly never woken up by any member of the Dregs, for any reason. He reached for his cane and his overcoat, which was hanging on a hook, to cover himself before approaching the door. Whoever was out there was unlikely to be friendly. Kaz brandished his cane in front of him as best he could while still leaning on it for support, and opened the door.

Inej was stood outside, in the tight wraps of her spying outfit. She only wore the hooded purple and black suit when there was serious work to be done, and she needed to have the smallest, most undefined silhouette possible. It made her look like the slim shadow of one of her knives, her eyes and teeth glittering from under the darkness of the large hood that covered most of her face.

But she gave an amused chuckle when she saw him, in a nightshirt and drawers with his coat loosely buttoned over the top and his cane in hand.

“What business?” he growled. It was too early in the morning for this.

“Carnival business. I’ve been allowed to practise some of my old tightrope walking tricks with them, and I wanted you to come too.”

Inej was looking at him with such bright, awake eyes… And Kaz was stood there, barely dressed with messy hair and half wondering if he should shut the door in her face and go back to sleep.

“Why?”

Kaz didn’t mean for it to come out so suspiciously, but fortunately his Wraith just rolled her eyes with a sigh and gave him another amused look.

“Because I need someone to spot me while I practise, and most of the circus people are sleeping now. And I just want you there.”

“Alright.” Kaz sighed and ran a self-conscious hand through his slept-on hair. “Give me twenty minutes to get dressed.”

“Wear something you can move about in,” Inej called through the door as he closed it, prompting him to turn back around and lean through the gap again at her departing figure.

“No, no, no. I’m watching. If I have to move around, I’m not going.”

“You don’t have to,” she assured him. “But you might want to.”

He sighed again as he closed the door finally.

Exactly fifteen minutes later he emerged from his room in a dark cape, loose undershirt and trousers, with his hair fixed into place. Inej was sat on the ground floor banisters, holding her body weight with her hands and swinging her legs between the rails.

“You look more awake already.”

Kaz grunted and let her lead him out of the door, through the misty streets, and to the Suli tent. Inej didn’t talk most of the way, just walked with even strides as she stretched out her arms and prepared for movement. Beside her, Kaz’s leg was already beginning to ache from the unexpected exercise and cold morning air. He stayed silent, breathing through the twinges in his knee and surreptitiously watching Inej’s slim frame as she warmed up.

When they arrived, there was only a light on in one of the many caravans set up around the big tent. Inej went over and knocked on the window, talking briefly with a tall Suli man who nodded and waved her over to the entrance with a smile. Kaz took in the surroundings: the clutch of colourful caravans all painted in beautiful curlicues and mosaics, the ponies all tied to a central peg on the grassiest section of land, and the neat remains of a fire pit sodden from the low-level fog that pervaded Ketterdam’s streets.

“Come on.”

Kaz turned and saw Inej lifting open the tent flag, beckoning him in. “There’s equipment already set up in here.”

He followed her inside, and looked around at the dimly lit theatre. Seats were raked up the curved sides of the tent, leaving plenty of space for him to sit and watch Inej practise. A trapeze swung almost imperceptibly a good ten feet from the ground and another six feet parallel to the thick wire of the tightrope. Infinite foot marks in the sand below these acrobatic aids created a strange pattern, relaying the night’s events to Kaz.

“I want to start on the trapeze,” Inej said, walking to the backstage area of the tent and coming out with chalk on her hands, coughing gently as she clapped away the clouds of dust.

Kaz settled himself on the second row of seats back from the sandy outskirts of the arena, close enough to see Inej clearly, but without the risk of being too close. He wasn’t sure what he was afraid of: simply looking too eager to watch her elegantly perform? That did seem most likely. Kaz wasn’t afraid to admit that watching Inej move was a thing of beauty. She had such control of her body that even when they were out on business, scouting out marks or tracking down enemies, sometimes he got distracted by her. It was impossible not to think of some kind of predator when she was focused in on something: tension all over her body, keeping her tautly aware of what came next. It was some kind of magic few ever got to see.

He crossed his bad leg over his knee to let it rest as Inej climbed up the narrow ladder connected to the tightrope and bent her knees, preparing to jump for the trapeze. It was a fair distance away, and Kaz could already feel his stomach knotting. Surely she would never try something she couldn’t realistically do?

Inej breathed in deeply, closing her eyes for a second and spreading her arms wide. She looked utterly serene but for the small crease between her eyebrows that Kaz could see even from this distance. Then she jumped.

Her body was so small going through the empty air of the arena that Kaz started in his seat, sitting bolt upright and staring at her outstretched limbs as though he could will her to reach her goal.

And of course she did, grabbing on with both hands easily and letting her momentum carry the trapeze forwards in an elegant arc. Kaz exhaled slowly, sitting back and relaxing somewhat. Inej continued swinging like that for a while, using her legs to increase the height of the trapeze as it peaked at either end, adjusting her grip and holding her whole body firmly in place as she slipped through the air like a black and purple arrow.

She pulled herself up onto the bar so that she was sat astride it, holding the wires with her hands, before leaning back and letting go, hanging by the backs of her knees and letting her hands trail down as her hood fell and her long plait of hair did the same. Kaz watched as she swung there, upside down, with her eyes closed and a look of absolute calm on her face. It was more than beautiful – he was mesmerised.

Inej lifted herself back up to sitting with only the strength of her core, built up a little more momentum, and then launched herself from the swing, tumbling downwards in a series of somersaults before landing on her tiny feet with only a small “hah!” as she dropped to the ground. It was almost faultless – she bent her knees on impact, and rocked forwards to catch herself with her hands before standing upright again and extending her arms to an imaginary audience on the opposite side of the tent to Kaz. He felt the need to applaud, but refrained out of fear she might think he was mocking her.

She turned to look at him with a breathless smile, her forehead lightly shining with sweat.

“Want a go?” Inej asked cheekily. He frowned at her.

“How on earth am I meant to get up there with a cane?”

“I could throw you,” she grinned, laughing at his expression of distaste.

“I am happy just to watch.”

“What about if you watched from above?”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, there is a platform at the start of the tightrope. You can sit up there and watch me on the trapeze below you.”

It sounded like an excellent vantage point, and the fact that Inej was encouraging his observation of her movement made Kaz feel that it was definitely okay to be admiring her this much.

“Alright then,” he agreed, getting up and making the slow ascent from the floor of the arena, up an incredible number of rungs, to the tightrope. Kaz could see how high up it really was to walk along it from here, even with the thick rope of wire that supported you. But it really was the perfect place to see Inej from, to watch her arc gracefully through the air as she practised somersaults from the trapeze and the great number of tricks involving her either standing on the thin bar or dangling from it. Kaz couldn’t deny, it was incredibly anxiety-inducing to watch her let go of the bar each time, and to trust that she knew gravity as well as she seemed to. But the real thrill was that she absolutely did. Every movement was carefully timed, every reach for the trapeze and every release from it. Her body was as in tune with the rhythm of its swinging as it was with the ground below her and sky above. There was nothing else quite like it.

She eventually tired, landing a little more heavily onto the softly sanded floor and lowering herself to it, lying flat on her back and panting. Kaz was so far above her, and yet from where he sat on his perch, they could have been lying side by side.

Only a short while later Inej was back up again though, climbing the opposite ladder and making her way up to the edge of the tightrope. She looked at Kaz with an expression of confidence that he rarely saw while they were at work. It made him shiver slightly. Arms outstretched, she pointed one toe towards the thick steel of the rope, pressing on it lightly. Kaz could see the dip it created from the opposite side, the ripple effect of her movement.

“Promise me you won’t fall,” he blurted.

His sudden words surprised both of them. But Inej didn’t look fazed for long.

“I can promise you I won’t be falling today,” she smiled.

And then she was walking across the rope, not casually, but with an ease that you didn’t often see in someone walking across a perfectly trustworthy surface. Her body was so upright, so neatly straightened and compact, it was like watching an exclamation point making her way along the rule of a notepad. Inej did everything with effortless grace, and even with the faintly sweat-streaked hair clinging to her temples, there was nothing about her movement that suggested exertion.

Kaz shifted his position, sitting with his legs either side of the tightrope so that he could watch the narrow line that Inej walked, and feel the slight shake of the rope with each of her careful steps. He realised how it looked, with him so fervently watching her coming towards him, but with Inej’s intense eyes focused on the forward motion, approaching him, it couldn’t be wrong.

She reached the centre of the rope, and pushed downwards. It trembled, and Kaz could see the strain on the wire from where he sat. And then Inej lowered herself down to sit on the rope. Her arms shook for a moment as they took her weight, but then she leaned back and swung so easily underneath the tightrope, hanging from it like a bat before she extended her legs either side of it, a splits in mid-air. Then Inej pulled herself back on top of the rope, and lifted her feet ever so slowly, ducking her head with her hands gripping the rope either side of her face as she slowly lifted herself into a careful handstand. Her legs akimbo, she was shaking visibly, and Kaz wanted to say something, to remind her to stay safe with it. But he knew better than to tempt fear by speaking it aloud.

Inej gave a rough exhale and lifted herself back to just sitting on the rope, holding on with each hand as she rotated her wrists and stretched out her shoulders. Finally she looked at Kaz with a wicked grin.

“No falling today,” she repeated, standing up again and making her neat way across to him. It took less time than he expected, and then she was stepping over his thigh to reach the solid platform that he was still sitting on, sweating a little from watching her endeavours. He took a deep breath and followed her back down the ladder, wincing as his leg took too much weight.

When Kaz and Inej were both back on solid ground, they took a seat in the stands as Inej drank from a water bottle she had brought along.

“You shouldn’t do those kinds of tricks without a net,” he couldn’t help saying as she caught her breath.

“I haven’t fallen yet,” she replied, “and I don’t think there even is a net here. Suli folk know better than to need catching.” There was a smile to him at that point; she didn’t need him.

“It’s been years since you practised though, surely?”

“Well yes. But a childhood on the wires has left it all ingrained in me. I don’t think I could forget how to if I tried.”

She looked out across the tent, at the bright colours of the signs and patterns painted everywhere.

“I have never needed anyone to catch me.”

Inej said it with such certainty that Kaz believed it, absolutely. She was more powerful than ever when she was upside down in the sky, overturned in the normal sense of the word, and yet it made her more capable than most people would be stood upright.

But still, Kaz couldn’t help it.

“I would catch you, though. If you fell today.”

It was such a ridiculous, sentimental thing to say. It made no sense, except in the roundabout way that his feelings worked. But Inej turned back to look at him, and there was softness in her eyes.

“I believe you when you say that.” She grinned. “I still wouldn’t need it though.”

And Kaz knew that that was the truth. He would be there for her, every second he could, but that didn’t mean he was waiting for her to fall. Because Inej Ghafa was not the kind of girl to look down for a soft landing.

**Author's Note:**

> Me with yesterday's fic: hmm, I don't know how I feel about this one  
> Me today: hmmm, I don't know how I feel about this one  
> Me, already sensing a theme for the month:
> 
> I hope you enjoy a little bit of acrobat!Inej and Kaz doing his best. I certainly enjoyed writing this one, but I'm still tempted to one day do a hefty rewrite. Maybe. Let me know what you think!  
> Tomorrow's prompt is "whispers", and it will be a platonic fic featuring the cast of Alice Oseman's 'Loveless'.


End file.
